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Under the Dome Wiki:Manual of Style
This Manual of Style outlines a standard of clean, consistent formatting for articles in . The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be unerringly perfect for every situation. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating and editing their own articles. These guidelines are a summary of the most important guidelines for the , but a more expansive set of guidelines can be found on Wikipedia at Wikipedia Manual of Style. Feel free to discuss our Layout Guide on the Forum. __TOC__ Writing guidelines Spelling All spellings should be in American English. In-Universe All Character histories and Episode synopses should be written as if the events are real, and not being seen by a viewer. The fourth-wall should not be broken: no references to "we see", "_ is shown", or "the camera pans back to reveal _". Out-of-universe information, such as production details, can be included in a "Trivia" section. Tense ;Characters articles: *Introductions before the character history should be written in present tense for living characters, and past tense for deceased characters. *Biographies should be written in past tense. ;Episodes: *Episode synopses should be written in present tense. Factual Statements Please keep speculation to the , blogs, or talk pages, and only include information structured in a way that reflects the available information. Example: ;Not acceptable: The Dome has demonstrated sentient behavior. As of this writing, the statement is not acceptable, as the statement, however likely, is still speculative. ;Acceptable: Several residents have speculated that the Dome behaves with a will. All statements should be cited (see below). Naming articles There is a certain naming convention... Article elements Lead section and TOC An article should begin with an introductory lead section, that provide an overview of the topic, briefly summarizing the article for the reader. Followed by the rest of the article divided into sections, each with a section heading. * The name of the article should be emboldened in its first usage in the lead, as should any alternate names mentioned in the lead. These bolded titles should not have links within them. * Leads should not exceed one or two pruned paragraphs. Table of contents (TOC) will automatically appear in articles with a minimum of four headings (unless forced by the below options). By default this will be left-aligned above the first section heading. This behaviour can be changed in certain cases. See for more information on that. Images Images make an article memorable and/or attractive. They can speak where words fail. At the same time, misplaced or untidy images can detract from an article. When choosing images, keep in mind placement, size, and the appropriateness of the image to the section. Let images flow with the text instead of break it up. ;Upload: * Relevant - Uploaded images must be related to 'Under the Dome' Tv-Series or Novel, with the exception of personal image for your user page. * Names - If the image file on your computer has a meaningless name like "12345.jpg", use the "Destination filename" box to write in a clear, descriptive title that will make it easy for viewers to know what the image depicts. * Licensing - Select appropriate license from the licensing box. (All screencaps should fall under fair use) ;Usage: * Placement - You should always be watchful not to overwhelm an article with images by adding more just because you can. Try to select images that particularly important, or that best represent the topic (in-particular for infoboxes). While "Less important" images can still be added to any article's gallery without distracting from the main text. * Quality & Format - Images should be of a clear resolution. Whenever possible, use .png images, as they maintain a higher quality than .jpg images when compressed. * Unused - Images must be used in a page within a reasonable time from when they are uploaded. should be deleted. ;Aspect Ratio Images should be in a certain aspect ratio for use in various articles. * General Images for Articles: 16:9 (800x450) * Character Article Portraits: 3:4 (360x480) * Episode Banner: 33:19 (660x380) Templates & Categories Templates overview}} ;Templates You can find an overview of the most important and or commonly used templates at this wiki here here. For full list see Category:Templates. * Infoboxes - All infobox material should be detailed in the article proper. See Category:Infobox templates for a list of available templates on the wiki. ;Categories Atm there is no Categories Overview but you can find out more on how they are organized here * Each page should be labeled with a category or more if appropriate. References All articles should end with: References Episodes of Under the Dome can be referenced by using the Template:Ref template. Usage: , , ..., , 1-1 refers to Season 1, Episode 1. 1-2 refers to Season 1, episode 2, etc. Sample: After the outbreak of meningitis was resolved, Joe invited the Calvert-Hills to stay in the McAlister home. Article layout Consistent page layout is important. It makes the site look more professional. And it keeps information in the same place on every article of a particular type, making it easier for people to find specific information. Here are the order and names of standard article layout items. (This does not mean every article needs to have all of these layout items): # Management or Header Templates. Such as or . # Infobox # Lead section # Table of contents (TOC) # Content # notes / trivia # External links # Navboxes # Categories Episode Articles Episode Articles should be using the Infobox episode. See usage information there. The following sections are typical for Episode articles: * Synopsis - provides the episode's synopsis. It should be written in present tense, and written in-universe, with no breaking the fourth wall or references to previous events as "episodes", etc. : Events should generally be described in the order they occur, rather than isolating and describing each individual storyline. Exceptions to this would be excluding or "moving" very short scenes, such as "Linda arrived at the suspected location of Freddy Denton." * Notes or Trivia - These sections can include out-of-universe details such as production notes. * Appearances - Episodes should be added to categories for each character's appearances. Category:Dale "Barbie" Barbara/Appearances, Category:Julia Shumway/Appearances, etc. These are used to provide a count for the corresponding character's infobox. Character Articles Episode Articles should be using the Infobox character. See usage information there. TBA Crew Articles Episode Articles should be using the Infobox actor. See usage information there. TBA Main Page Updates to the main page content such as the News, Featured content, etc can be done through Mainpage templates. Please do not make changes to the main page layout\style without discussing it with the community first. * News slider can be edited at Template:News. To fill the space, images must be 16:9, so most screencapped images will work. News about the Wiki itself can use the following images if desired: UTD Slider Yellow.png UTD Slider Cyan.png UTD Slider Purple.png UTD Slider Green.png UTD Slider Blue.png UTD Slider Red.png UTD Slider 3.png UTD Slider 2.png UTD Slider.png Category:Policy